_ There are nights when a person has time to go round for round at a craft cocktail bar, and there are nights when a single drink will do just fine. For those evenings, we present One and Done, a column that exalts the one drink you just can’t miss at some of the country’s best bars._

The kitsch and swagger of 1940s and 50s tiki culture enjoys a revival at River North cocktail bar, Three Dots and a Dash. The walls are paneled in bamboo, the back bar is stocked with a collection of international rums and the barware is appropriately campy—you can sip from carved tiki mugs, conch shells or even a giant treasure chest embellished with dry ice and orchid petals. But if you’re going to have just one drink at this Polynesian set piece, bartender and partner Paul McGee recommends the namesake drink, Three Dots and a Dash. He tells us about this potent cocktail, borrowed from a mid-century tiki patriarch.

"The Three Dots and a Dash was created in the 40s by Don the Beachcomber—the originator of tiki culture who operated Polynesian style restaurants around the country through the 1970s. It’s made with two styles of rum (aged agricole and aged Guyanese), honey, lime, orange, cinnamon, clove and allspice. Most perceptions are that tiki drinks are sweet and one-note, but the Three Dots and a Dash is very complex. And for folks enduring Chicago’s long winter, the cocktail is particularly nice because of all the warming spice elements. The version that we serve here is tweaked slightly from its original form: Beachcomber’s recipe called for orange juice, which I really don’t care for in cocktails, so I use dry orange curaçao and a little extra lime juice. The addition of curaçao makes for a boozier version of this drink, and spirit-forward cocktails are something I usually lean towards."

RECIPE: Three Dots and a Dash

• 1 ounce Duquesne Aged Rhum Agricole

• 1 ounce Eldorado 5 Year Rum

• 1/2 ounce Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao

• 1/2 ounce Honey syrup

• 1/2 ounce Falernum

• 1/4 ounce Allspice Dram

• 1 ounce Fresh lime juice

• 3 dashes Angostura bitters

Fill a cocktail shaker with crushed ice. Add all of the ingredients and shake briefly. Strain into a glass filled to the top with crushed ice.